Reading informational texts and other types of nonfiction becomes increasingly more important as our students progress through middle school. In high school and especially in college, students are expected to read large amounts of complex text and retain the information. The shift from “learning to read” to “reading to learn” generally begins in middle school.
As such, I try to include informational texts as often as possible in my class–even when we are studying fiction! For example, when we are studying The Witch of Blackbird Pond,we read a lot of texts that provide historical context for the novel. When we read Freak the Mighty, we read about learning disabilities. The more students are exposed to and work with informational texts, the less foreign it will feel to them. They will gain confidence in their ability to read these (seemingly) more difficult texts.
Strategies for Reading Informational Texts
Of course we don’t just *read* the informational text. All along the way, I am teaching my student strategies for navigating these texts! For example, on of my favorite strategies to use is teaching students about annotating a text. Annotating really helps students engage and interact with the text, which helps them retain the information so much better! This is an especially useful skill for students who plan to go to college!
Another strategy that I like to arm students with is SQ3R. SQ3R is a five-step approach to reading a text and serves as a great self-check for students to use to ensure they are comprehending what they are reading. The steps of SQ3R are 1) Survey; 2) Question; 3) Read; 4) Recite; and 5) Review.
Using Text Features as a Strategy
Generally, I like to begin the year teaching students how to identify and use Informational Text Features to aid their comprehension of nonfiction texts. Many students might be familiar with these text features, but I am often surprised at how many middle school students haven’t quite grasped how to use them to their advantage.
For about a week, I like to immerse my students in using informational text features.
We identify text features.
We explain how each text feature helps readers.
Sometimes, we even compose our own writing that includes text features!
By the end of this short unit, students are incredibly familiar with informational texts and know exactly how to use the features for their own benefit!
Text Features as Test Prep
While I usually complete these text feature activities with my students at the beginning of the school year, I also like to revisit them at the end of the year in preparation for any end-of-year exams we may have. Reading and Language Arts exams often include several nonfiction and informational texts and like to ensure my students are prepared!
What strategies do you like to use to help your students approach informational texts?
As difficult as it is for some of us English majors to understand sometimes, poetry is not always a favorite subject for middle school students. In fact, poetry has not always been my favorite subject. I have clear memories of sitting in Mrs. Callister’s class in 7th grade while she tried to teach us poetry. I remember fighting a headache while trying to make sense of the chicken scratch on the chalkboard that was supposedly depicting stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem.
While I have nothing but love for Mrs. Callister (truly, one of my favorites!), as a typical 12-year-old, I had no use for distinguishing the differences between iambs, trochees, or dactyls. Now that I have grown up to become an English teacher myself, I just knew there had to be a more engaging way to teach poetry. This is why I put together my Top 7 Tips for How to Teach Poetry to Middle School Students!
7 Tips for Teaching Poetry to Middle School Students
While I firmly believe that there are a million ways to be a great teacher and, similarly, a million ways to teach poetry effectively, here are seven things that I have found to be helpful when helping young teenagers learn about and connect with poetry.
1. Make It Fun!
My number one tip for teaching poetry to students is to make it fun! How do you do this? It’s simple. YOU have fun! If you are having fun with your lesson, your students are more likely to come along for the ride and find at least some enjoyment in poetry. Plan activities and lessons that are active and exciting and make you laugh! If you’re not enjoying your own lesson… well, your students are probably bored to tears and are finding creative ways to entertain themselves. If you want real learning to take place, you may want to rethink your plan!
All humans are naturally more engaged in something when we can see how it is relevant to us! Some might say that this is self-centered, but I think it is just human nature. It stands to reason, then, that our students will be more engaged if they can see how poetry is relevant to them! Help students find poetry in their world–in popular music lyrics, advertising and more! Help them connect with today’s young poets! Show them that poetry and poetic elements are all around us, if we have eyes to see it!
3. Make It Meaningful
Similarly, studying poetry will make more sense for students if they can finding meaning in it. Teenagers today care so much about the world around them and poetry can help spread positive messages for issues they care about. Poetry has a special way of forging connections among people. Poetry can take a complicated emotion and describe it with beauty and simplicity. Poetry can help individuals makes sense of the world around them.
We read and study poetry not only to learn about figurative language and poetic elements, but because it helps us understand the human condition. Your students will learn so much more if they can find personal meaning in poetry. So choose poems that mean something to your students!
4. Make It Creative
Another strategy to consider as we think about how to teach poetry to middle school students is to incorporate creativity. Provide students with opportunities to express themselves. Give them the freedom to find the poem within. That said, many students will have no interest in actually writing poetry. To me, this is totally understandable. Not everyone has the natural ability to produce meaningful poems (including me!), so I don’t ask students to actually write too many poems. Alternatively, I like to incorporate creative projects that help them learn about poetic elements and figurative language. Allow them the chance to dabble in figurative language and imagery and alliteration through fun creative assignments.
5. Make it Accessible
Sometimes, we English teachers are in need of a gentle reminder that not every student is a prolific reader and writer. Not every student is going to go to college and take entire university courses on Shakespeare and John Donne for fun! Remembering this, we need to break our poetry instruction down into really simple terms. Start with the basics and scaffold students’ learning from the bottom up so that all students can be successful with your poetry unit. Also, keep in mind that some students may need more support than others!
I still remember, as a junior in high school, hearing my teacher and classmates talk about onomatopoeia in English class. The way they were talking made it seem like it should be common knowledge, but I had no idea what onomatopoeia even was!
I wonder if I missed a lesson on it at some point in my educational career. I thought that such a unique word must mean something highly intellectual. As a teenager, I was much too shy to ask questions, so I simply pretended to understand. Later, when I realized that onomatopoeia was just referring to sound words, I was actually disappointed!
6. Make it Challenging
At the risk of contradicting myself, my next tip is to make poetry challenging! With a solid understanding of the basics, students are capable of being pushed and challenged in their poetry study! One of my favorite things to watch is my students’ growth in understanding poetry. I usually begin my poetry unit with a pretest which asks students to read and analyze Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall.” Without any context or skills, the students rarely comprehend the poem. In fact, they are usually completely lost!
However, a few lessons into our unit, we revisit “Mending Wall.” With a little bit of background knowledge and an understanding of how to read a poem, it starts to make sense to the students! I love witnessing those “light bulb” moments, when you can almost see things beginning to click in students’ minds.
Our students are capable of so much! With a little help and guidance, they can do amazing things!
7. Make It Memorable
However you choose to teach poetry to your classes, make it an experience that students will remember–ideally, in a good way! Use your own personality and strengths to make it an experience students will look back on with fond memories!
Quick Recap: Teaching Poetry to Middle School Students
Make it Fun!
Make it Relevant!
Make it Meaningful!
Make it Creative!
Make it Accessible!
Make it Challenging!
Make it Memorable!
Good luck with your upcoming Poetry Unit! I hope you and your students have a great time learning about the magic of poetry!
Greek Mythology is hands-down one of the most popular units that I have ever taught to my middle school students–second only to my Fun Poetry Unit. With the rise of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series and other modern allusions to Greek Mythology, students’ interest in the ancient stories is higher than ever. I love to capitalize on that interest and teach students important literacy skills while enjoying the engaging stories of well-known Greek mythical figures.
When I teach Greek Mythology, I divide our study up into three subunits. I begin building students’ base knowledge about twelve major Greek gods and goddesses. Following that, we spend some time reading and analyzing the themes of several famous Greek myths. And finally, we study The Hero’s Journey and eight of the most well-known Greek Heroes. The entire unit takes about a month and students LOVE it! At the end of each lesson, they are literally BEGGING for more Greek Mythology!
Let’s take a closer look at each of the subunits!
1. Greek Gods and Goddess Unit
Greek Gods and Goddesses Unit
First, my students and I take a look at ancient Greek Deity. Greek Mythology is full of interesting characters, but perhaps none so intriguing as the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece! This FUN no-prep middle school unit examines each goddess and god individually. Students will be able to recognize each deity’s Greek and Roman name, his or her title or realm, the symbols associated with him or her and become familiar with the major myths involving each god or goddess. The twelve gods I include in this unit are Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hades, Athena, Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus and Artemis.
For each deity, I use a note card for students to keep track of the vital information of each god–by vital, I mean the information mentioned previously and that will also be on the test! On the flip side of the note card, I’ve included an artist’s depiction of the god or goddess. If we have time, I’ll ask students to color the whole thing; but at a minimum, I ask that students at least color any visible symbols of the goddess or god. This helps them recognize the goddess or god in art, pictures, etc.
Brief Bio, Note Card and Color Plates for Each of the 12 Major Greek Goddesses and Gods.
We end this part of the unit with a test (review included) and a fun creative activity that my students have always really enjoyed!
2. Introduction to Greek Mythology
Introduction to Greek Mythology Unit
Secondly, in the unit, I like to pause and reflect with students about why it’s a good idea to study Greek Mythology. I have devoted an entire additional blog post about my top four reasons we should study Greek Mythology, so I won’t go into that here. However, I do review these reasons with students as part of the unit. We read seven Greek Myths and analyze the theme of each myth. I really enjoy pausing with students and considering what might be a life lesson that can be learned from each myth. Typically, there are many in each myth. Often, my students decipher themes that haven’t even occurred to me! I love this part of the unit where students can think critically!
Lesson Materials for Introducing Greek Mythology for Middle School Students.
The myths that we read include:
The Tragedy of Echo and Narcissus
The Tragedy of Phaethon
Prometheus and the Theft of Fire
The Story of Pandora
The Judgment of Paris
Oedipus and the Oracle at Delphi
The Minotaur, Daedalus and Icarus
Each of these stories is so fun to read with students! Some they may have heard of before and others they may not be familiar with. Either way, they are exciting myths to study and analyze together. This unit also includes some creative projects at the end that are a fun way to wrap up this section of our Greek Mythology study.
3. The Hero’s Journey – Greek Mythology
Finally, the last portion of my Greek Mythology unit is centered around Joseph Campbell’s monomyth or “The Hero’s Journey.” We begin the unit by introducing the journey and then proceed to read about eight famous Greek Heroes: Perseus, Atalanta, Bellerophon, Achilles, Theseus, Heracles, Jason and Odysseus. For each hero story, students can mark how the hero went through The Hero’s Journey and then complete an additional fun and creative activity.
This unit concludes with a formal writing assignment that takes students through the entire writing process discussing their personal hero. We work on prewriting/brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing and publishing. It’s maybe less fun, per se, for students, but it is meaningful for each them to think about someone they admire and why.
Fun and Engagement are Contagious!
As with most lessons we teach in our classrooms, if we are having fun, our students are more likely to have fun. Smiles and enthusiasm are contagious; so are pessimism and dread! So find something to be happy about and have fun studying Greek Mythology with your students!
One thing that may put a smile on your face is that if you bundle these three resources, you’ll get 20% off!
